The Interface Repository
Interoperability, which is critical to the success of the Internet of Things, is best accomplished through shared or “open” structures and definitions, particularly those describing the features and functionality of devices. For example, being able to consistently define what devices “are” and what they can “do” is a foundation for defining who or what is able to control them or access their data. Furthermore, an agreed-upon definition of a device’s capabilities makes mapping these definitions to different protocols more straightforward.
To this end, Panasonic North America has created the Interface Repository Project, which allows the open source community to collaborate on the creation of interface definitions and makes those interfaces available for general use.
The Interface Repository focuses on the storage of structured documents that define interfaces. Each document defines its namespace, which corresponds to the native ecosystem of the interface – its object model.
Note that the Interface Repository Project is not intended to be a master repository. It was designed to give the industry the benefits of collaboration and consistency in the definition of features and functionality of device interfaces and code generation as well as fully supporting OpenDOF, AllJoyn, and ECHONET Lite interface definitions.
The project is released as part of Panasonic’s contributions to the OpenDOF Project (https://opendof.org). The Project welcomes contributors to this project. The source can be found at https://source.opendof.org/projects/TOOL/repos/tools-interface-repository/browse. There is an issue tracker available at https://issue.opendof.org/browse/IFREPO.